In your opinion, should the giving of weekly days off be legislated in Singapore?

In my opinion, maids are every much as human as all of us, it i only fair that they, like us get an off-day. I am sure that they too, want a day off whereby they can let loose and talk openly to their friends.

With reference to the recent events, be it on STOMP or on the papers, more and more maids are taking advantage of moments alone with elderly to do their own things, such as hair re bonding in one instance. Thus, by giving them their day off, they will less likely try to sneak time to do such acts.

Similarly, there are the social problems of these aspects as well. the people they mix with might be the wrong company, which could even endanger their lives. Quoting from the Straits Times, the maid who got murdered by her Bangladesh boyfriend while they met up. Clearly, wrong company is a hazard and a hindrance to allowing the maids to leave the house .

Once again they are human, they are working in Singapore and it is not right to treat them like they do not matter at all. they are like a tortoise in a well. they work in Singapore yet have never seen the sights there, it will not be fair if all they have seen from application to termination, is the walls of our homes.

Similarly, apart from chores, they are also assigned to take care of children and elderly, thus making it all the more inconvenient to leave the house at all. Yet, being a domestic worker is a job that requires a lot of commitment. Just think, one person's work quality controls the hygeine of the entire house.

Similarly, prevention is better than cure. i would rather the maid remain confined than have her life endangered or here wealth targeted in any way.

term2 lesson 2

War was everywhere, leaving nothing but destruction. Hunger plagued the land, everyone was starving. The only word to describe the people here, was scrawny. With almost no flesh on their bodies, and their frail legs barely supported their skinny bodies. The atmosphere itself was saddening.
Everyone was cynical. They seemed to hold the mindset that nothing would change for the better, and that the war that ravaged their once peaceful lands was going to be eternal.
As a journalist from Singapore, i only felt guilt as their sorrowful eyes met mine, and almost at once, i realised that i wanted to do so much more for them, and realised that war benefits nobody.
i found myself digging into my pockets, trying to find the tiniest morsel of food, to feed these innocent people. they did not deserve to suffer. They received the food gratefully.
These, were of the few burned by the war, they did not deserve it, neither should anyone else...

my comments

reflections...

This week's blog assignment requires you to write a 200 word reflection on the LA lessons covered so far. In your reflection, you may include the following points:

• what you have learnt/gained in the LA programme up to this point;
• what you like about the programme;
• the change(s) that you hope to see in the programme; and
• a lesson that you particularly enjoyed and why

from the LA lessons so far, i have basically picked up the skills and the criteria to write a good short story. i have also had a better understanding on too kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee. the criteria part has taught me what defines a good short story, and know an incomplete short story when i see one.

i like the LA program a lot because it condenses literature and English into one subject, thus making it very easy to study, and a lot more interesting than just plain English or plain Literature, which requires us to 'mug' more than learn.

yet i hope that the lesson can be more interesting if we get to opt for the book that we want to study on. this will give us the initiative to read the story more on our own than just reading for the sake of reading the book. thus, the book can be completed at faster pace and will be more convenient for the teacher if he/she wants to elaborate on the book.

I particularly enjoyed the lesson when we were expected to write a story. this made me think harder on how to express that particular character and i myself also have to know basically what this character is like and so on. but the bad part is i could not condense all of the characters traits in the same exert.

t1 wk 5

As you step inside that enclosed court, you are immediately greeted by the musty smell of shoes, rubber and sweat, a tell-tale sign that someone has used it not too long ago. the lines of red seem to mock you everytime you miss a shot and the tin sounds sonorously as if laughing at your precision.

Sometimes, that place seems like a place to have fun, but other times, during the competition,

it makes you sweat profuesly despite the cooling air-conditioner. the boxes at the sides seem like two eyes sometimes, staring at you.

yet, the most interesting thing in the court is the permanent black streaks on the side walls, created when the dirt-covered balls rub against the walls at high speeds. it is almost like these streaks tell the age and the maintenence of the court itself, an interesting feature in the court which is almost white all over.

the last thing that is special would be the wire netting above the highest line. this netting is as irritating as a mosquito, sucking up all the balls that belong to others. Balls that get stuck between the wires are never picked, waiting till another ball knocks them out from the other side.

charecterisation, story exerpt

On the surface, Reborn may look like an ordinary home tutor, but he is actually a hitman, training the 10^th Vongola boss to be a proper mafia boss. He may look a lot like a baby, but that is due to his pacifier, as he is one of the archebalengo.

Reborn heard from tsuna’s mother that there would be a parents meeting the next day, Reborn, all cooped up in the house because of his previous fiascos, was dying to hhave some fun. When everyone else was asleep, he drew out the plans for the next day.

The next day, a student fell extremely sick, and had to be escorted by the teacher to the sick bay. Not wanting to waste the chance, Reborn promptly got dressed in his best suit and pretended to be a relief teacher.

After gaining the trust of the gullible parents by writing overly-complex questions with no answers on the board, reborn was ready to have his fun. Slowly, he asked the students one by one for the answer, and if they could not give one, Reborn threw bombs at them.

Later on, the bombing game was starting to get old. Reborn then claimed that it was time to raise their IQ the scientific way. Once again, after providing nonsensical evidence that if they were put in an electrical chair, they would grow smarter, Reborn continued with his torturous game.

After a while, the parents were aware of his tricks and eventually managed to chase him out. But Reborn did not care, he had had his fair share of fun, and now it was time to go back home.

the place that means the most to me? that is not a very difficult question, and it is the squash court in school. it may only seem to be a place thatis for exercise only, but it has brought me a lot of happy memories.

Firstly, the 2010 trials, I beat all the sec 2 students in squash, sequring me a sweet solid place in the nationals, earning me much valuable experience that stills help me in my current competitions. this is also the place where i made most of my friends, although most were sec 2 instead of sec 1, but nonetheless they were good friends i could rely on.

this was also the place i spent a big portion of my holidays, since school was out and there was no trouble to go home, i spent even more time in the court, further improving and the results showed in competitions.

but after saying this much, how does this link to my identity. basically, it links to my identity because it is the only thing that sets me apart from others, because i am proud to say i am the only one in sec one last year that played it competetively, and my constant absence during the first few weeks because of the nationals has set me apart from others.